1 Samuel 3:1-10
Psalm 63:1-8
1 Corinthians 6:11b-20
JOHN 1:43-51
Sermon – 1/15/06
“Come and See”
“Philip found
Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found him about whom Moses in the law and
also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.’ Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good
come out of Nazareth?’”
Nathanael was prejudiced. Not only that, he was prejudiced in a
semi-well-informed way: the hick town of Nazareth had no credentials at all as
the potential home of a prophet, never mind the Savior of the world – why,
Nazareth is never mentioned even once in the entire Hebrew Scriptures.
So Nathanael was
skeptical and derisive in response to Philip’s enthusiasm: “Can anything good
come out of Nazareth?” Nathanael
thought he knew all about how God operates.
That God’s anointed would not come from such a place. He was a little presumptuous as well as
prejudiced.
For God has
always chosen whoever God wants.
The Israelites themselves did not become the Chosen People because they
were numerous, powerful or learned: they became the Chosen People of God only
because God chose them. And if
Nathanael had really reflected on the Old Testament, he would have known
that God sometimes chooses the very old (like Abraham) or the very young
(like Samuel, who at the time of his calling as described in our first reading
this morning was probably about 12).
God sometimes chooses as leaders a fugitive (like Moses) or a family’s
youngest son, who was thought to be insignificant (like David). God sometimes chooses women (like Miriam,
Deborah or Ruth, just to stick to Old Testament examples) to play major
roles. And, God even chooses foreigners
to be instruments of God’s will (like the widow in Zarephath with whom Elijah
sojourned or Naaman, the Syrian general Elijah healed).
So, a careful
student of the Hebrew Scriptures would learn, not only is it not right to be
prejudiced and presumptuous, it really doesn’t work – because you’re likely to miss the next wonderful
thing God will do.
Nathanael, to his
credit, put aside his prejudice when Philip responded simply, “Come and
see.” And when Nathanael met
Jesus, Nathanael discarded his prejudice and presumption entirely and declared
his belief in Jesus as the Son of God.
To which Jesus responded in essence, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”
Philip persisted
in inviting his friend to Jesus despite his friend’s prejudice. And Jesus, let’s remember, was willing to
meet someone who was prejudiced against him in an effort to convert him! We are all works in progress, as
Jesus knows better than anyone.
Sometimes
prejudice in a culture is so deep-rooted that it convinces people that things
are impossible when they are not.
Samuel had no idea that he was being called by God, and even his mentor
Eli didn’t understand what was happening until God called out to Samuel for the
third time. Perhaps the thought was
“God doesn’t talk to 12 year-olds.” Or,
even more likely, perhaps they both believed that “God doesn’t talk directly to
anyone anymore – that only happened
in ‘the old days.’” Those were wrong
ideas then; they are wrong ideas now.
Systemic
prejudice which soaks deeply into a society can have all kinds of crippling
impacts. In his Autobiography
Nelson Mandela, first president of free South Africa, recalls how, when he was
in exile drumming up support for the African National Congress, he boarded an
airplane in another African country and saw a black man in the Captain’s seat
in the cockpit. Mandela writes that his
initial reaction was “What’s that black man doing there?” He then did a double-take, realizing that
years of “brainwashing” by the white racist government of South Africa had led
him to assume that no black man could be found who was qualified to pilot a
commercial aircraft! If Nelson Mandela was impacted by such
“brainwashing,” how many more people must have been persuaded that certain jobs
were “impossible” for them or for people like them!
The lesson about
prejudice applies in other contexts as well.
When I was called to come to St. Barnabas 21 years ago, I left a
position as Assistant Minister at a church in my home state of Massachusetts
and turned down an offer of a rectorship at another church in
Massachusetts. Some of my friends and
acquaintances there said, “You’re going to New
Jersey? Why?”
Anyone else ever
get a reaction like that to “New Jersey” from other people? Well, there are people who are
prejudiced against New Jersey. And
there were people I met in New Jersey who were wondering why I’d moved 250
miles to come to…St. Barnabas, which was not considered a prestigious call at
the time, you could say! The best
response to both attitudes was and is, “Come and see.”
And if anyone
wonders why St. Barnabas has tripled in a attendance during the last 21 years
while the number of Episcopalians in New Jersey as a whole has dropped,
a lot has to do with the extent to which all of us remember that everyone has unlimited spiritual potential and
anyone can be called by God to play a
role in God’s plans. Young/old,
male/female, newcomer/old-timer, gay/straight, any race or ethnic group:
anyone. So therefore, welcome everyone. Invite
everyone to “Come and see” Jesus. God
really is an “equal opportunity employer” who picks the darnedest
people.
-3-
We are players on
God’s team – and scouts as well, if you like.
God is the owner of the team, and the owner sets the philosophy
and attitude of the organization.
Let me give you
an example of how ownership philosophy can have a negative impact. As many of you know, I am a life-long Boston
Red Sox fan. There’s a lot to be proud
of in the 100-year history of that team, which finally won a World
Series in my lifetime, but there are parts of its history that are shameful,
notably the fact that the Red Sox were the last team in Major League
Baseball to integrate.
Here’s an example
of the results of the racism that permeated the Red Sox organization in
the 1940’s and 1950’s (at the least). A
Negro League team, the Birmingham (Alabama) Black Barons rented a stadium from
the local Red Sox affiliate, as noted in Jules Tygiel’s book Jackie Robinson
and His Legacy, so the Sox had an opportunity to know close-up the talent
that was there. According to one
account, the Red Sox sent a scout to check out a certain promising young
outfielder in 1950, but the game was rained out. The scout refused to spend one more night in Birmingham just to
scout a black man (although I doubt he used that term). The scout left and the Sox never followed
up.
According to that
account, that’s how the Red Sox lost the chance to sign…Willie Mays.
Teams with an
attitude like that don’t win the World Series – until they change. Churches with an attitude like
that…die. And should. A few hundred yards down Sand Hill Road towards
Rte. 27 from us is a small brick church building. When I came to St. Barnabas, it was owned by Twin County Baptist
Church. Their last pastor told me that
he was fired by the church for… bringing in too
many new members. Who were, ahem, different from the existing
members. Not the same socio-economic
group, don’t you know. Shortly
afterwards, the church closed, and the grass around it was a foot high, until
it was sold to…Glory Korean Presbyterian Church. That church eventually moved to Edison and sold the property to a
Hispanic Pentecostal church. The people
who didn’t like “different people” are just a memory. Perhaps “the ‘different’ shall inherit the earth.”
The exciting
thing is, we’re all “different” – it depends on the perspective of the
one doing the talking. And the variety
of the people found here at St. Barnabas today is only a small fraction of the
variety just among Christians – heck, just among Anglicans – in this world,
although we do come from five continents and from around the corner. Being the family of God includes the
excitement of wondering what wonderful member of God’s family each of us might
meet next! Or, you could say, every
Sunday is like Christmas, with the next person we meet or get to know better as
perhaps a surprise package from God to each of us.
To get back to
the baseball analogy, imagine that you’re both a player and a scout on a team,
and every Sunday is open try-outs. One Sunday, we might get a really young
country boy come to town literally with a cardboard suitcase and a dream. If we were a team which was prejudiced
against people from Oklahoma, then we wouldn’t get to have…Mickey Mantle on our
team.
Or, to switch
sports, suppose we’re a basketball team, and an 18 year-old High School
graduate from Ohio walks on the court and asks if he can play on our team. Wears number 23. And if we’re open to newcomers on our team, we say “Sure, LeBron
James, you can play on our team.” Or the newcomer might be another guy who
wore Number 23, name of Michael Jordan.
My point is that
the next “Michael Jordan” for this church could walk in the front door any
day, and we have no idea what that person will look like. So, if we continue to live out the
belief that every person has unlimited spiritual potential and that God
calls all sorts and conditions of people to shine in God’s service, we
will continue to build a great team, to the glory of God and the well-being of
all whom God has made. For, every person
is more precious to God than the most gifted athlete at the peak of his or her
career is to that athlete’s team.
Let us conclude
by saying together our church’s “purpose statement” from the top left of the
service leaflet. “The purpose of St.
Barnabas Episcopal Church is to bring people
together in Jesus Christ, to know him
personally, and to strengthen the
love of God and humanity…”
(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard
St. Barnabas Episcopal Church